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A review by daumari
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
5.0
Tagged on my hugo-winners shelf because technically, it won the 1954 Retro Hugo in 2004!
Read for The Biere Library: Storytime Book Club's pick for Aug/September 2022, Back to School.
Somehow, I'd never read this previously in schooling, and I haven't seen any adaptation of it. Through cultural osmosis I knew broadly that it was about book burning, but not the finer details of plot or character. Bradbury writes a fine short novel that packs a punch in its brevity, and it feels prescient/evergreen (especially with the uptick in parents calling for books to be removed from not just schools but libraries in 2022, though arguably there's a similar tension in the air to McCarthyism). I disagree with the implied premise that the left is as bad when it comes to calling for removal because for all the supposed bluster on "cancel culture", statistically there's been an uptick in censorship calls against the existence of queer voices and anything pertaining to race (definitely curious about an updated version of the stats at the bottom because I'm sure 2010-2019 changes significantly from the previous decades), and criticism isn't the same as pulling from publicly accessible shelves. (notably, freedom of speech does NOT mean freedom from criticism).
The seashells in Mildred's ears could easily be AirPods and customized interactive fiction like "the Family" seems just around the corner, as is the lead up to the removal of books (digests of works to read so you could keep up, brief and briefer summaries for shrinking attention spans... say like a 90 second video clip, hmmm?) The mechanical hound is exquisitely described, reading now as a mix of retro tech, futuristic yet with tangible, near biological features on metal spider legs.
I do wish we learned more about Clarisse and the McClellans, but like Montag that's something we don't consider until they're gone.
Read for The Biere Library: Storytime Book Club's pick for Aug/September 2022, Back to School.
Somehow, I'd never read this previously in schooling, and I haven't seen any adaptation of it. Through cultural osmosis I knew broadly that it was about book burning, but not the finer details of plot or character. Bradbury writes a fine short novel that packs a punch in its brevity, and it feels prescient/evergreen (especially with the uptick in parents calling for books to be removed from not just schools but libraries in 2022, though arguably there's a similar tension in the air to McCarthyism). I disagree with the implied premise that the left is as bad when it comes to calling for removal because for all the supposed bluster on "cancel culture", statistically there's been an uptick in censorship calls against the existence of queer voices and anything pertaining to race (definitely curious about an updated version of the stats at the bottom because I'm sure 2010-2019 changes significantly from the previous decades), and criticism isn't the same as pulling from publicly accessible shelves. (notably, freedom of speech does NOT mean freedom from criticism).
The seashells in Mildred's ears could easily be AirPods and customized interactive fiction like "the Family" seems just around the corner, as is the lead up to the removal of books (digests of works to read so you could keep up, brief and briefer summaries for shrinking attention spans... say like a 90 second video clip, hmmm?) The mechanical hound is exquisitely described, reading now as a mix of retro tech, futuristic yet with tangible, near biological features on metal spider legs.
I do wish we learned more about Clarisse and the McClellans, but like Montag that's something we don't consider until they're gone.